Next Week, Main Street to Close Down For Two Nights As Old Praetorian Building Goes "4D"

For a sneak peek of what's in store on November 30 and December 3, go here -- to a video from New York City, wherein the Ralph Lauren store on Madison Avenue was transformed earlier this month into a ginormous movie screen. Which isn't the half of it. "Inception in real life" is how folks described the scene, so-called 4D because the images projected upon the building's façade made it look like a living thing.

That's what's in store next week, per the release from The Joule that just landed in the Unfair Park in-box: From 8 to 9 p.m. next Tuesday and the following Friday, the hotel will screen upon exterior of the 15-story Praetorian Building at 1607 Main Street moving images, among them the trailer for The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. (Which makes sense, since Joule and Praetorian owner Tim Headington is a producer on the film.) But that's not all, says the release:

This is the first-ever application of advanced digital mapping technology in downtown Dallas; through state-of-the-art light and architectural mapping, The Joule hotel will transform the downtown Dallas landscape, using 3D imagery to create a 4D experience onto the city's first skyscraper. ... Using eight synthesized projectors, the software-driven effects will have the Praetorian Building crumbling to the ground and other such illusions, in addition to showing The Tourist trailer in high definition -- a seven-minute, rolling presentation -- viewers may also interact with a life-sized touch-board wall screen for chances to win two nights at The Joule, Louis Vuitton luggage and passes to the advance screening of The Tourist.

I've seen some of the video renderings for the downtown event, and if the real thing lives up to the conceptuals, it could be extraordinary. In one bit the sides of the building appear to fall off to make way for a movie screen; in others, sections of the building look as through they're jutting out and/or falling into the street; in yet another, a train appears to circle the building. (It remains to be seen if they go with the shootout-from-the-windows sequence.) The Joule got the proper special-events permits from the city that will allow the closure of Main Street both nights from 7 to 9 p.m. Which should please those Friends of Unfair Park who've long called for Main Street to go pedestrian-only. Too bad they couldn't do this at, say, 4:20.